Tag Archives: AD&D

First Battlesystem Skirmish

It’s weird how I’ve been into miniatures and roleplaying since fifth grade, but I never actually played a miniatures game until I was in college. Then, like many others I got roped into Warhammer and 40K. I completely missed out on Battlesystem. Wizards of the Coast just released a new free ruleset compatible with 5th Ed. AD&D, but I have no interest in using the new version of AD&D. The old rules are found easily enough on eBay, and they’re based on 2nd Edition AD&D (the version I played all through high school and college) so I picked up a copy.

We got more snow over the weekend (because we really needed more of it), and I had just finished my highlander warband, so I figured why not try the skirmish rules out? So here’s my first Battlesystem Skirmishes After Action Report!

I chose Highlanders vs. Orcs as the forces. The highlanders were made up of two clans: The Mac Layrs (Green/Blue) and the Rennies (Red/Blue). I split them into separate units based on clan. Bran Mac Layr was the commander (a level 6 hero), and he was supported by Rory Mac Layr, (a level 3 cleric). The remaining 2 Mac Layrs were generic level 1 human fighters. The Rennies were all level 1 human fighters.

The orcs were led by Varg (Level 2 orc leader). Varg commanded 4 Level 1 orcs. Also on the orcs side was Gogzarak, an ogre (Level 4 monster). As a monster, he can move and act independently. I used the generic stats provided in the Battlesystem rulebook for all the miniatures.

The orcs and the ogre are attacking the highlander settlement in the hopes of grabbing some sheep. The highlanders are trying to stop them. (Insert your own highlander/sheep joke here.) I deployed the Rennies in the pasture and the Mac Layrs in front of the houses. The orcs were deployed in the woods, and Gogzarak was deployed on his own, across from the Mac Layrs.

That’s Bran Mac Layr with the claymore, near the well. Rory Mac Layr (the cleric) is all the way on the right.

The Rennies are among the sheep.

Varg is leading his orcs out of the woods.

Gogzarak the ogre is on his own, taunting the Mac Layrs.

ROUND 1:

The monsters win initiative, which means the highlanders move first. Using this cool bendy-ruler, I measured out their full move (12″). No way are the Mac Layrs letting some scummy ogre get anywhere near their houses! Unfortunately, this puts them well within the ogre’s charge range.

Gogzarak charges Bran Mac Layr, bellowing as ogres do. He smacks Bran for 1 hit. Bran responds, but rolls a 1. He misses, and initiative immediately switches to the highlanders (weird rule).

In the pasture, the Rennies move to intercept the orcs as the come out of the woods. Neither side can reach melee this round.

ROUND 2

The Rennies charge into combat. Two of them concentrate on Varg, the leader, while the other closes with an orc. The strategy pays off as both Rennies score hits and Varg dies. In response, one of the orcs kills one of the Rennies.

Meanwhile, Rory Mac Layr moves to the hilltop to better support both units. He casts Bless on the Rennies, giving them +1 to THAC0 and +1 to Morale. But it’s the orcs that have to check morale this round since their leader was killed. They pass and stay to fight.

The other Mac Layrs all attack Gogzarak, and he attacks back, but no one hits anybody.

ROUND 3

Bran Mac Layr circles Gogzarak to get the +2 THAC0 bonus a rear attack gives. The other Mac Layrs flank the ogre. Bran hits Gogzarak for 2 hits! The other Mac Layrs miss. So does Gogzarak. Hoping to further support the Rennies, Rory Mac Layr casts Hold Person, rooting two orcs to the spot.

However, despite his support, the two unhindered orcs still manage to cut down the Rennies like cornstalks.

ROUND 4

The two orcs who are still able to move break off and move towards the cleric on the hill. The Mac Layrs and Gogzarak fight another ineffective round of combat with no casualites. Seeing two orcs approaching his position with ill intent, Rory casts his final spell: Cause Light Wounds. One of the orcs drops dead halfway up the hill. The remaining orc checks morale as he had to form a new unit as a result of combat (the other orcs couldn’t move with him because they were held). He fails and is shaken.

ROUND 5

Bran kills Gogzarak. The orc rallies. (Sorry, no picture.)

ROUND 6

The lone orc charges the cleric while the Mac Layrs circle the hill. Even though the cleric has +1 THAC0 due to being on a higher elevation, he misses. The orc wounds the cleric for 1 hit.

ROUND 7

Rounding the hill, the Mac Layrs spy the held orcs and charge. Showing no mercy, they put the filthy greenskins to the sword!

Bran charges the orc from behind, but misses. So does the orc and so does the cleric.

ROUND 8

Bran Mac Layr kills the last remaining orc, cleaving him in twain from behind. Victory to the highlanders! Alas, the proud Rennie clan has fallen. Cue the bagpipes!

ANALYSIS:

Battlesystem Skirmishes is pretty easy to learn, especially if you have ever played 2nd Edition AD&D. This whole game took about 25 minutes to play, including the time I took looking up rules and taking pictures. It seems the forces were unbalanced in favor of the highlanders, despite the monsters having more points on their side. I purposely didn’t use missile weapons, which may have altered the battle for both sides.

The cleric seemed to make the most difference in this game. Although his Bless spell didn’t do much, his other two spells really made a difference in how the game played out. If I played this skirmish again I would bulk up the monsters a bit by giving them missile weapons or maybe a shaman of their own.

Elves, Dwarves and Rust Monsters

Thought I’d showcase some miniatures I painted recently.

First up are some Reaper elves. (Apologies for the blurriness of the photos. I need to get a tripod.) Up high is Ardynn, Elven Hero (Reaper 14046) , while down below is Baeldrinahr, Rogue Figher(Reaper 02952). Ardynn looks more like a High Elf to me. I decided to base him on snow and I’m happy with the result, although you can’t really see it. I decided to paint Baeldrinahr like a Wood Elf, so I chose the palette and basing accordingly. Both these would have made an appearance in my AD&D campaign, if I was still running it.

It’s never hard to get me to paint Dwarfs. These are some older Reaper sculpts that actually look kind of small compared to their more recent dwarf products. On the top are two Dwarf Heroes from Sandra Garrity (Reaper 03351). On the lower left is Sturm Jagstone, another Garrity sculpt (Reaper 02236). I love these miniatures.

Oh, Crap…

Lastly, I decided to showcase one of the all-time classic and most hated AD&D monsters: the Rust Monster! These two armored lads are about to have a very bad day.

The warrior on the left with the ridiculous sword is Reaper’s Alustan Nightbreaker, Paladin (Reaper 03192). On the right is Kain Swiftblade, yet another Sandra Garrity sculpt (Reaper 02025), one of Reaper’s oldest miniatures, and one of my personal favorites.

The rust monsters are a mix of old and new. On the left is Reaper’s recent “Oxidation Beast” (why get sued, after all? Reaper 03585). This one is metal (the irony!!….Oh iron-y! How doubly ironic!!!) but they make a Bones version that’s five bucks cheaper at the moment. The one on the right is a classic Ral Partha rust monster. I really like the look of both models, and I’m pretty happy with the paint jobs.

It’s all about Gnomes.

With The Recent Demise of My AD&D Campaign, I have decided to share some of the miniatures I was holding back from the blog for fear my players would see them too early. I figured I’d start with the last (and final) adventure, in which the PCs explored the long-abandoned laboratory of an eccentric (but legendary) Gnome inventor.

These three gnomes hired the PCs to help them explore the lab in the hopes they could find something that would be of use in repelling the evil svirfneblin who were attacking their homeland in force. The miniatures, L-R, are Reaper’s Balto Burrowell (02510) and Marius Burrowell (02959), as well as an old-school Ral Partha Dwarf, repurposed as a gnome because he scaled nicely.

Of course, the opposition had already invaded the lab in the hopes of sacking it themselves. I decided to use Reaper’s Bloodstone Gnomes for svirfneblin. I went with a brownish skin tone as opposed to the blue of true BSGs. The majority were Bloodstone Pinners (06212). I also gave them a couple of Beetle Lancers as sergeants (14548), as well as a captain (Bata, Beetle Rider Captain 14568).

Along the way the PCs ran into some of the gnomish inventions, still active and guarding the lab from intruders. These Brass Arachnids and the Arachnid Swarm are from Wyrd’s Malifaux line. I actually never got to use the Brass Arachnids, but I’m quite happy with how they turned out. On a side note, the Arachnid Swarm was a cast iron bitch of fiddly parts that I never want to assemble again. I lost count of how many times a leg broke off. In fact, I had two Arachnid Swarms, and I gave up trying to assemble the second one. The Iron Golem is from Reaper (02728), and I can certainly find a use for him in other games as a robot or something. He was originally supposed to accompany the PCs in their quest. If you were paying attention, you may remember they’re already hanging out with an animated scarecrow. Scarecrow…Tin Man…off to (stop) a wizard…you get what I was going for here. all the above miniatures are based on junkyard bases from Taban.

Lastly is the big Boss miniature my friends never got to face. He’s Frank-n-Steam, from Armorcast. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to be available any longer, although there are still some similar Frank models on the site. Being resin, he required a lot of filling and cleanup before I painted him, and even then he still shows some bubbles and seams. I scratch built this base out of junk and bitz I had laying around. And yes, that’s a guy’s face in the chest. Much like the Iron Golem, I can use this thing as a mech suit or a robot body for a mad scientist in SuperSystem or .45 Adventure, so I’m not that bummed out that he never made it into my AD&D game.

The Demise of a Campaign

I recently made the decision to pull the plug on my AD&D campaign after several game-free months. It was not as hard as I thought it would be. But it still sucks.

Some quick background: I got the idea for the campaign a few years back. Get my friends to re-create their favorite all-time character for AD&D 3.5, start at 1st level and go. I decided to keep it light and focus on the characters, so I created a world all my own and dumped them in it. It was to be a fairytale-themed game, where familiar characters and situations from classic fairytales-both Mother Goose and Brothers Grimm-often made appearances. I came up with a basic plot: an evil wizard places a curse of eternal darkness on the kingdom, and refuses to lift it unless the princess marries him. The only way he can be stopped is to gather ten special gems with divine properties, scattered all over the world. The characters have a year and a day to lift the curse.

Of course, in truth, the characters have as long as they need to lift the curse. I figured we’d just play the campaign out and once they got all the gems, we’d have the final confrontation. Kind of like in any video game RPG.

Like I said, I wanted to focus primarily on the characters. Each had a story to tell, and truth be told, I wanted the players to care more about them than they normally would, since these are their “favorite” characters. And I wanted to use miniatures, since I had never really used them successfully in a rpg before.

We played the game for a few years and we all seemed to have fun. But we never got very far in the overall story, because our game sessions grew farther and farther apart. In my opinion, here are two reasons I feel the campaign ultimately failed:

1. Too many players: I play with four other guys, all good friends of mine. We’re all around the same age: early forties. Some us have families, some of us don’t. You would think for a game like AD&D, a four-character party would be just about right. And it is. But the simple truth is that coordinating the schedules of five adult men should not be as hard as it has been. It seems that there are nights when 3-4 of us can get together, but the nights when all 5 of us were available and ready to play were rare, even when we attempted to stick to a rigid schedule planned well in advance. Ultimately, I was running the game, and I decided that unless all of us were available, I wouldn’t run my campaign. I wanted all my players in order to run the game, because I wanted all the characters there for the story.

2. Miniatures are a bitch: especially when you’re the only one buying and painting all of them. I look at all the miniatures I purchased over the last 2-3 years, and at least half of them were bought solely for this game. The expense is not the issue…it’s the time I needed to devote to painting. I chose some monsters I already had (like GW Orcs and Goblins, of which I had an entire WFB army) for the first leg of the campaign, which allowed me to paint miniatures I would need for down the road. The theory was that by the time we got to a particular point in the campaign, the miniatures would be ready. Of course it didn’t work out that way. Real life gets in the way of painting, too; and I needed to take a couple of brief hiatuses from running the game in order to catch up on the painting. In the meantime, someone else would run something. Even though using the miniatures was fun, the amount of time needed to buy and paint them took up a lot of time we could have been playing. And I don’t know about you, but when I HAVE to paint something, it seems like work and takes a lot of the joy out of painting. (I’d rather paint those Wargames Factory Greatcoats, but I need the three gnome NPCs the players are going to meet, as well as the Elven Swordmaster they’re going to encounter and the Otyugh they’re going to fight, all by Saturday night. This happened a lot.)

By the time I pulled the plug last month, we hadn’t played as a complete group since early November. Granted, the holidays are bad; but we always managed before. In addition I hadn’t painted one miniature since early December. Partly that’s because I got obsessed with Batman: Arkham City and played that until my fingers bled. But I stopped playing that in January and I didn’t return to painting until last week, mainly because I just didn’t feel like it.

I think the reality of our gaming situation is that we can no longer seem to commit to a long-term game as a group. Sure, we can play one-shots or short 2-3 session games, but the days of a long campaign in any rpg system seem to be behind us. That makes me sad. If you asked any one of us, we would all say we would like to play more. We all miss those weekly gaming sessions when we were in high school or college, but that’s just not us anymore. I guess its better-for our group, at least- to game when we can with whoever can make it, and play whatever we can; whether it’s miniatures skirmish, published adventures with pre-generated characters, or just a quick one-off here and there.

It’s better than not playing at all, right?

Ill-Met in Lankhmar

Figured I’d post a few of my painting projects from a few years ago. First up is a duo likely familiar to any classic Sword-and-Sorcery devotees out there: Fritz Lieber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser!

I’ve loved the Lankhmar stories since I was introduced to the characters in TSR’s Deities and Demigods, way back when I was a kid. Both of these are Reaper miniatures, sculpted by the legendary Sandra Garrity. The Mouser is (02034) Kurff the Swift, while Fafhrd is (02152) Fafnir of Kjord (an homage if ever there was one). These miniatures together would make a very cool diorama if done properly, with the Mouser preparing to scale a wall, and Fafhrd covering his back. Unfortunately, I painted Fafhrd years ago and the Mouser only a few weeks ago, which is why they’re based differently (and why I think the Mouser looks better.) I’m not wild about this picture. I can’t account for the shiny, glossy look on Fafhrd. Must be the camera flash, as I never use any kind of glossy paint or sealant and he certainly doesn’t look shiny in real life.

Up next is another duo, from my current AD&D campaign, the Tears of Yevona. This is Scarlet and Rouge, a pair of renowned “crime-fighters”. Many bards have written songs extolling their deeds of derring-do. Unfortunately, every time they’ve appeared in my campaign, the PCs have had to rescue them from someone or something. (“Of course, a few more minutes and we would have managed to free ourselves and overcome our dastardly captors. But your aid is appreciated nonetheless, comrades!”)

I actually forget which one is Scarlet and which is Rouge, so I’ll just call the girl Rouge. Rouge is another Sandra Garrity Reaper sculpt, (02006) Sidrith, Sword Sister; while Scarlet is (02430) Rictur Deihn, Assassin, sculpted by Bobby Jackson. (I used Rictur Deihn as a character miniature myself in a GURPS fantasy game years ago, and found a new use for him as an NPC in my AD&D campaign.) I painted both of these several years back. I think they could use more facial shading, but overall I’m ok with how they turned out.

AD&D Campaign: The Tears of Yevona

Once again, I figured I’d share some of the miniatures I’ve been using for my ongoing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 campaign. If you’re inclined to check out more, you can find some earlier posts here and here.

The Player Characters

First up, the PCs. Left to right: Elvar, the mage; Azrael, the bard, and Dematose, the cleric. Elvar is Reaper’s Halmar, Young Wizard (Reaper 03449). He is holding an uncorked potion bottle in his hand, and what I painted as flame is supposed to be vapor, I guess. I kind of like the flame look, even though I clearly suck at painting fire. Azrael is a Dark Sword bard from their Elmore Masterworks line. Dark Sword makes some incredible miniatures, and this may very well be the best bard I’ve ever seen. I’m ok with the paint job, even though my diamond pattern kind of fell apart halfway through. Dematose is Privateer Press’s Bastian Kinnet, Battle Chaplain of Morrow. I’m really happy with the way he turned out. Missing from the group is the ranger, Gough. He’s missing because his player owns the miniature and wanted to paint it himself. Of course, 2 years into the campaign, he’s not fully painted yet, even though my friend has painted other miniatures in the meantime. This is because my friend is a shithead.

This is not my friend’s paint job.

If interested, this is the miniature he chose for Gough. it’s another Dark Sword miniature, this time from their George R. R. Martin line: Wildling with Great Axe. Very cool.

The Butcher Bruvvers

If you followed the first link above, then you know who the Cudgel Gang is. When the players last encountered the Cudgel Gang, they left a few of them alive, including the dastardly leader, Quin Payden. Well, since then, Quin added some new recruits to the Cudgel Gang, and even replaced the ones who died with some thugs who look remarkably similar. Above are the two newest recruits, the Butcher Bruvvers. These are Heartbreaker Miniatures: Half-Troll with Ball and Chain and Half-Troll with Club, from their fantasy sculptors line. In their recent rematch, the PCs got some much-wanted revenge. They managed to kill almost every member of the Cudgel Gang, including the Butcher Bruvvers. The only one who escaped was (you guessed it) Quin Payden, vowing revenge. It’s a good bet he’ll turn up again.

The toughest fairies you’ll ever meet.

Not long ago, the PCs wandered into a faerie ring and were shrunk down to tiny size. They were promptly taken captive by faeries. Since I think most faerie miniatures look like, well, fairies, I decided to use these RAFM Dark Elves instead. They’d been laying around unpainted since the early 90’s, and it gave me an excuse to paint them. Soon afterwards, the PCs were given a chance to win their freedom if they could perform a service for the Faerie Queene. She sent them on the very dangerous errand of stealing the crown of Tarkhagal, the Spider King.

Spiders!

Not surprisingly, the Spider King had a lot of spiders around as guards. The PCs had to fight their way to him, defeating swarms of these guys in the process. The tiny spiders are from Mississinewa Miniatures. The big yellow ones are from Reaper (Reaper 03055). I painted them the color and pattern of an orb spider I found online, and based them with some Halloween decoration cobwebs. In the game, the small ones attacked in swarms and had weak poison. The yellow ones shot webbing and had stronger poison.

The Spider King?

Finally the party came face to face with the Spider King. Or did they? This is Meepo, a goblin who wandered into the faerie ring years ago and escaped the faeries, only to fall into the Spider King’s lair. For whatever reason, Meepo was immune to the deadly effects of the spider venom. Instead, it drove him mad and increased his physical attributes. The real Spider King kept him around for amusement. Meepo is an old-school Warhammer Forest Goblin Spider Rider. While I have a huge WFB Orc and Goblin army, I never used Spider Riders because I thought they looked silly. (The new ones are much cooler- looking.) I had this guy laying around though, probably the result of a trade made long ago. I figured I’d put him to use as a boss, and here he is.

The SPIDER KING!

After a long battle with lots of spiders and a crazed goblin, the PCs thought they had killed the real Spider King. On their way out, however, they got a rude awakening. The real Spider King, Tarkhagal, dropped from his lair in the ceiling and blocked their exit. That’s him above. I looked high and low for a little crown bit I could use for this big spider, but I couldn’t find one. I even looked at charms for bracelets. No dice. Tarkhagal is Reaper’s Huge Spider (03049), and he is huge. His leg span wouldn’t even fit on a 60mm base. I should have included a picture of a regular 28mm miniature for comparison. He’s about 3 times the size of one of the yellow spiders above.

Well, the bloodied, weary and poisoned characters managed to subdue Tarkhagal and take his crown, thus winning their freedom from the faeries. They’re currently back to their normal size and continuing on their adventure.

What’s Old is New

I’ve been on a bit of an old-school miniatures kick lately, no doubt inspired by guys like the Old School Grenadier Miniatures blog (now sadly gone, it seems).

A bit about that. I first started painting minitures in the 5th grade. Since I’m 40, I’ve been at it a while. I don’t claim to be a master painter; I learn more and more every day. But back then, and pretty much right through high school, I truly sucked at it. I painted all my miniatures with Testors gloss enamel paint, which doesn’t lend itself to shading, highlighting, mixing, or just painting in general. Not that I made any attempt whatsoever at any of those techniques. Most of my miniatures looked pretty gloopy.

It wasn’t until I started playing Warhammer and 40K in college that I discovered acrylic paint. A huge difference for sure. And although I have little love left for GW, I learned a lot from their publications and my painting dramatically improved in a relatively short period of time. Since I was building armies to game with, I painted GW figures pretty much exclusively from the early 90’s -2000 or so. Around 2003, I took a long hiatus from both wargaming and painting, having to pack up my paints and miniatures in storage. I only started up again about 3 years ago, and now I can’t stop.

Partly because of nostaligia and partly because I look at them and cringe, I’ve decided that in between my regular projects I’ll give some of my earliest efforts the repainting they so desperately need. Here are some of them.

Everyone I know who collected miniatures back in the early 80’s had the guy on the left. He’s from the Fantasy Lords set 121: Knights. I think he’s a pretty cool miniature from that time, plus he has a bec-de-corbin. How many miniatures do you own that are similarly equipped? Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture of him with his old paint job, which was a true atrocity. I never bothered to base any miniatures before I started playing Warhammer, and I see no reason to base them for repaints. Next to him is a Ral Partha Dwarf: I can’t find the number. If any of you can, I’d appreciate you telling me. I recall he was in a blister labeled “Conquistador Dwarf”, but I’ve also seen him referred to as a “Dwarf Champion”. This guy never had any paint on him before now, so there was no “before” picture to take. I did base this guy, because I’ll probably be using him in my AD&D campaign as an NPC. I’m pretty happy with the way they both turned out.

Here’s an example of my work back then. Note the lovely Testors glossy flesh color on the charging halberdier. Impressive, no? Now just imagine if he had a face, how good that would look, and you get the idea of the general quality of my painting back then.

These are the repaints. The miniatures are some classics from that era: Ral Partha’s Chaotic Knights of the Skull (01-137). Like many of the miniatures of this time, scale was all over the place. These were supposed to be 25mm miniatures but they’re more like 32mm. The halberdier’s legs are far enough apart that you could fit the knight in the first picture within his stride. Although I think they’re both kind of silly, they were easy and quick to paint in between my current projects. I still don’t like the miniatures, but I like to think my paint job has improved over 25 years.

I think I’ll keep repainting old stuff and posting the results from time to time.

The Cudgel Gang

These guys are a small gang of bandits in my current AD&D 3.5 campaign. Basically they’re a group of highwaymen infamous for beating the hell out of the folks they waylay. The fellow in the middle is their leader, Quin Payden. The guy to the left of him is Karg, his lieutenant. Both are nasty fellows.

I rolled some strips of green stuff and cut off the tips, then painted them to look like coins, which I scattered on Quin’s base. I think I stole that particular technique from Cool Mini or Not. I like the end result.

The miniatures are all from Reaper. Quin’s miniature is Dub Bullock, Rogue (03026). Karg is Mack Hardwick, Mercenary Captain (14332). The fellow to the right of Quin is Calbach Greatclub (03231). The guys on each end are Thugs (14329).

Here is a rear view of Quin and Karg. I love the Dub Bullock miniature with the knife behind his back.

In the game, my players decided to fight rather than hand over their money (of course). They killed two thugs and badly wounded a third. Quin was wounded as well, but not before he got a chance to backstab the cleric and take the bard hostage. He escaped with most of their money. Karg got away, too…unscathed.

Bandits rarely change their ways, so there’s a chance they may cross paths with the party again. My players would love some payback.

Dead Dick's Tavern and Temporary Lodging

The Angry Piper's miniatures and gaming blog.